Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Combs' ex-assistant 'Mia' to continue testimony next week

Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator Lance Jimenez testified that it did not take him long to conclude that the car fire at rapper Kid Cudi's residence on Jan. 9, 2012, was caused by a “makeshift firebomb” commonly known as a Molotov cocktail.

“Somebody had lit it, cut the roof and dropped it in the front seat,” Jimenez told the jury. “In my opinion it was targeted.”

Jimenez told the court that he took note of the slash in the canvas top of the black Porsche 911 Cabriolet and “burn patterns” that he said were on the vehicle's seat, carpeting and roof.

“There was a bottle on the front seat and there was a cloth handkerchief on the center console that was burned,” Jimenez testified. “Inside the bottle I observed a liquid that gave an odor I know to be gasoline.”

Jimenez further testified that he noticed a disposable red lighter on the ground. He walked the jury through photos of the damage to the car, including soot damage on the driver’s door, burns on the interior and the cut in the canvas roof.

The jury also saw a picture of the disposable lighter, the 40-ounce Old English 800 malt liquor bottle that Jimenez testified was used to make the Molotov cocktail, and a burned handkerchief

“The cloth was more of a silky type material. I think it just fell out of the bottle," Jimenez testified. "The bottle didn’t break so the liquid wasn’t able to disburse. The fire just smoldered out. It didn’t cause damage I think it was intended for."

Jimenez told the court that Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, had his home swept for fingerprints after the earlier break-in that he reported to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Two prints were lifted from the glass front door, but Jimenez told the jury the fingerprint cards he turned in to the LAPD evidence unit were destroyed in August of 2012.

The mention of fingerprint evidence allegedly being inexplicably destroyed prompted an objection from the defense and a motion for a mistrial.

“The only way to cure the outrageous prejudice is to move for a mistrial,” defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said.

Shapiro accused the government of prosecutorial misconduct for asking the witness whether it was “unusual” for fingerprint evidence to be destroyed. She accused the government of trying to plant an idea that Combs was responsible for the destruction of the fingerprints lifted from Mescudi's front door.

“It was becoming clearer and clearer that this inference was what the government was doing this for,” Shapiro said. “There’s no way to un-ring this bell.”

Prosecutor Christy Slavik responded that a mistrial is “absolutely unwarranted.”

“The application for a mistrial is denied,” Judge Arun Subramanian declared, saying that there was no testimony in response to the question of whether it was unusual for fingerprint evidence to have been destroyed.

Subramanian said he would strike the testimony and issue a curative instruction to the jury that the questions about the fingerprint destruction are irrelevant to the case and the responses should be disregarded.

The Los Angeles police officer who responded to Kid Cudi’s home on Dec. 22, 2011, after the rapper reported a break-in there testified that a black SUV he saw leaving the scene was registered to Sean Combs’ company.

LAPD officer Christopher Ignacio testified that he walked through the home with Cudi, whose birth name is Scott Mescudi, and recorded the incident as trespassing, which he described to the court as “someone entering someone’s property without the owner’s consent.”

Ignacio further testified that he ran the license plate from a black Cadillac Escalade SUV seen driving from the house. The jury saw that the resulting report showed the vehicle's registered owner as Bad Boy Productions, Inc., which Combs' owned.

Capricorn Clark, Combs' former assistant, testified Tuesday that Combs, whom she told the court was armed with a handgun, and a bodyguard entered Mescudi’s home after allegedly kidnapping Clark from her apartment and forcing her to join them.

Mescudi previously testified that nothing was missing from his home after the break-in but that he found Christmas presents opened on the counter and his dog locked in a bathroom.

On cross-examination, Ignacio testified that his report said nothing about a firearm being involved.

“You had no information that there was a gun involved?” defense attorney Brian Steel asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Ignacio responded.

“Did you hear anything about a kidnapping?” Steel asked.

“No,” Ignacio answered.

The next witness is the Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator who responded to the firebombing of Mescudi’s car in 2012.

The Sean Combs sex trafficking and racketeering trial resumes Wednesday with the expected testimony of an alleged victim of the criminal enterprise federal prosecutors have accused Combs of leading: a former employee who will appear under the pseudonym Mia.

In the government’s opening statement, prosecutor Emily Johnson described Mia as “an employee who the defendant worked to the bone for years." Johnson said Mia would testify “about the times that the defendant forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will.”

Defense attorney Teny Geragos countered in her opening statement that Mia allegedly had “unbelievable love” for Combs and questioned her motive for testifying against him.

“What are the reasons she is saying what she might be saying now, what she never said before, and certainly never said when she first started cooperating with the government?” Geragos said.

First, the jury will hear from a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator who responded to rapper Kid Cudi’s home when his Porsche 911 Cabriolet was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail in 2012. Prosecutors will also call stylist Deonte Nash, a friend of Cassie Ventura’s who is expected to testify regarding allegations that Ventura told him Combs was making her participate in a so-called "freak-off" sexual encounter on her 29th birthday. Combs has maintained that his encounters with Ventura were consensual.

On redirect examination, federal prosecutors suggested that Capricorn Clark returned to work for Bad Boy Records because Combs allegedly stymied her attempts to work elsewhere in the music industry.

“He held all the power as it related to me,” Clark testified through sobs.

Prosecutor Mitzi Steiner also sought to reaffirm Clark’s earlier testimony about Combs allegedly carrying a gun from the time he showed up at her apartment to the time they drove to Scott Mescudi’s house.

“Was Mr. Combs carrying a gun?” Steiner asked.

“Yes,” Clark answered.

“And was that gun visible to you?” Steiner asked.

“Yes,” Clark replied, further telling the court that she feared at the time that if she did not oblige Combs’ demands, "I would be hurt.”

Court has adjourned for the day. The next scheduled witnesses include a Los Angeles Police Department officer; a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator; Deonte Nash, who is a stylist in the Combs circle; and a former Combs employee whom the prosecution alleges is another Combs victim.